More Tunnel Light

If this pic looks very similar to this one of my daughter, there's a reason.

Alex and his Mom described a picture they wanted me to make and showed me an example of one they had done previously; Alex looking down with the light coming in from the left, background out of focus. I tried photographing Julia in the tunnel to see how it would look before I suggested this to Alex.

I had Alex meet me at 7:00pm at Adriatica to do the shot. I noticed it was starting to get cloudy and could see a storm moving in in the distance. Alex arrived just as the rain started so I figured we might as well see what we can do anyway. The big problem was light. The dark clouds from the storm cut the light to almost 50% of what I was expecting to get.

This is where the 5D Mark II really came in handy. I borrowed a friends 50mm f1.4 and pushed the ISO up to 1600. This was the result. Not bad considering the light was very limited. In the raw image I could see just a little bit of grain when I zoomed in on the picture, but I was able to get rid of most of it using Lightroom, as well as converting the image to black & white.

Prison Courtyard

Still at the old Collin County Prison, this area was at one time the prison courtyard. I've heard stories of prisoners yelling and whistling at women if they happened to walk down the alley where the prison courtyard is located. It's hard to believe you could get that close to inmates less than 40 years ago.

For this shot, I asked Alex to pretend he was getting slightly agitated that his girlfriend was not on time yet again. His expression was just what I was after. This is one of my favorite shots from our entire session.

Senior Pics in McKinney

This is Alex, the subject of my most recent senior shoot. I suggested we try some pictures at a few spots in downtown Mckinney. One place I can never resist shooting at is outside the old Collin County Jail.

These steel doors are located at the side entrance, and from the looks of it they've been there since the jail was built in 1880. The facility was in use up until the 1970's, and the last legal execution in McKinney took place there in 1922. Among the famous alumni to have a few sleepovers was Frank James (Jesse's older brother). Charles "Tex" Watson, one of Manson's merry followers, also spent some time here awaiting extradition to California.

Anyway, back to Alex. He was super-easy to work with, very open to my strange suggestions ("lets take pictures at a jail!"), and is a smart, bright guy. We got a lot of great shots and plan to get a few more.

Senior Pictures, part 8

Ok, just one more post about the senior shoot...

A few more of Kayla's outdoor shots. As I said earlier, she's modeled for me before so these came easily and she's very comfortable in front of the camera.



I suppose the senior market is a field of photography where I could market myself more, but it seems like people have certain expectations of how these kind of pictures should look. As I look around at other photographers web sites, most of them look the same. I can't tell one photographer from another. But this is what pays, so I can either jump on the boat or go somewhere else on a life raft.

Money vs. artistic freedom...I faced similar choices back in my musician days and we always chose to be artists rather than join the bandwagon. It didn't make us money, though, and I sure would like to get my hands on a 5D Mark II.

Senior Pictures, part 7

To finish off the session with Kayla, we went to a park in Plano to do some outdoor shots. This was in early November so the trees were still mostly green.

The picture above is one of the last shots I took. I was able to catch the sky's reflection in the pond that made an "s" curve right down to where she was sitting.

Something else I tried doing was using a fill flash in almost every shot. There were some very scenic but shady areas, and the fill flash helped balance everything out.

Senior Pictures, part 6

While Kayla was in the green dress we tried a white background. It gave the photo more of a high key look.

Senior Pictures, part 5

Working with Kayla was a little different. She had more time so we were able to do more shooting. I've also worked with Kayla several times so she's very used to my shooting style and comfortable with the camera.

After we did her cap and gown series, she changed clothes a couple of times and I tried a couple of different backgrounds. The lighting stayed basically the same through most of the shoot.

Senior Pictures, part 4

THIS was the picture I was after. I knew as soon as I took it I caught the expression and attitude I wanted from Haleigh.

Again, trying to highlight her new class ring, I had her move her hand up to her face with her head turned slightly. I suggested afterwards that we try it in black and white, while keeping the ring in color.

To end the session, we went to Towne Lake in McKinney to try to get a few shots before the sun went down. Unfortunately for me, my best shots came when I was starting to lose the light. There was enough light to do pictures, but my Nikon D80 doesn't do well in low light. For the picture below I used my SD-600 flash. The results aren't bad...I think the catch light from the flash help bring her eyes out.

Senior Pictures, part 3

Haleigh is a cheerleader, so we obviously had to get some appropriate shots. The one above is one of my favorites. The problem we had was that it was taken in the fall and the grass had already started changing color. Unfortunately due to Haleigh's schedule and time contraints, this was the only time we had to do the photos. This is the greenest I could get the grass to look without making it look fake ...even after pushing up the green channels in Lightroom and Photoshop.

The picture below was taken a few weeks later in the studio (my garage). Haleigh's Mom wanted to try some indoor cheerleader shots.

Senior Pictures, part 2

My second senior, Kayla, with the same cap and gown and background. Out of the backgrounds that I do have, this one seemed to work the best color-wise. The girls did have other choices but both agreed this one was their favorite.

I didn't photograph the lighting setup I used for both shoots, but I had my 48" softbox behind me and to the right, and my 24" softbox behind the subject on the left. I pointed it toward the ceiling to get a bounce just to fill in.

Senior Pictures, part 1

It's that time of year....actually if a senior is just starting NOW to think about senior pictures, they're running a little late.

I don't market myself as specializing in senior photography, but if they like my work and want that style I'm happy to do it. Last August I was approached by two families interested in hiring me to do senior shots for the daughters, both seniors at McKinney High School.

For the cap & gown shots, I figured I'd just rent the cap & gown, but that proved easier said then done. Wanting to get the school colors correct, I approached the school and I approached the company handling the class rings, yearbooks etc. who I was told rented out school accessories for photo shoots. What I was told is that they only work with "certain photographers." In other words, if you wanted a cap and gown shot you had to have it done by whatever photographer they had some kind of arrangement with. Not cool in my book, so I bought my own. I found a company on line that had the color combination I needed so I bought from them. I'm not sure I got the right information about how to rent caps and gowns since I don't normally rent them. But simply buying one for $40.00 seemed like the best way to go...plus I can use it again.

Here we have Haleigh in a few slightly formal poses in the cap & gown. She also had just gotten her class ring which I tried to highlight.